From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The co-founder of the United States Market Access Centre (USMAC), Colin Donohue, has said that Nigeria is a difficult environment to attract international capital for small businesses.
Donohue, who also co-founded the Global Innovation Dojo, stated this at a media engagement in Abuja to train budding entrepreneurs, attributing the problem to a lack of mentorship by business owners for startups.
“When you look at the investment environment, Nigeria has been a difficult environment to attract international capital.
“It is not the easiest place to operate. It’s not the easiest place to do business. What I would say for the startup ecosystem, it’s a different problem set,” he said.
According to him, the project is designed to identify entrepreneurs with resilience and capacity to scale into high-growth ventures, which would be done in partnership with the Imo State government.
He revealed that the Imo State Government had set up a digital hub to serve as an accelerator, with national data protection frameworks already in place to safeguard intellectual property and sensitive data.
“When just a handful of founders succeed, the impact spreads across society. What is missing is experienced mentors who have built and sold global companies. This project aims to bridge that gap by linking Nigerian startups with successful international founders,” Donohue said.
USMAC’s Africa Representative, Matt Ifese, said the programme would run in phases, starting with application calls over the next 30 days, followed by a curated Silicon Valley-standard hackathon in October.
Ifese disclosed that the Tinubu administration has rolled out several initiatives, particularly in talent discovery and development.
He observed that what is critical now is synchronising these efforts, as both the federal and state governments are driving their own programmes with significant momentum.
He disclosed that it was the first time a large team of Silicon Valley professionals would be visiting Nigeria to work directly with local innovators.
He said the partnership with the United States Market Access Centre and the University of California, Berkeley, represents a major milestone that is expected to make a significant impact on Nigeria’s digital innovation ecosystem.
